I can do Nothing

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. John 15:4

I have been wrestling a lot to prepare the messages for the Compelling Love retreat. I need to be reminded that eventhough flowers precede fruits, just having the confidence of creating flowers doesn't mean that you can bear fruits. All that glitters are not necessarily gold.

As I wrestled with the message, it became clear that I could prepare and persuade, draft and deliver; but I have no clue of how to bring transformation to the lives of the hearers. No one else have the clues either on producing spiritual fruits.

Great orators could build rapports, could make people laugh, could move them to tears, could even have a throngs of people lining up for decision. But it's all the floweries. Flower could precede fruit; it almost always does. But flower is not fruit.

It requires more. Only life can beget life. And this life is "abide".

"Abide" is a command - because it's in our nature to stray off. When we am weak, we desparately cling on to the Lord and He came through for us. But when we got a hang of it, we ventured off by ourselves, and that's when we are prone to perish.

The problem is that if we are so use to watch for the flowers as the indicators of how well we do, we can easily deceive ourselves. Hearers may continue to laugh at our jokes, cry at our stories, and line-up at our calls for responses, but they all may not be the fruits. Or worse, the fruits may be there, but it's the work of God despite our disconnectness with God. (See how God responded when Moses disobeyed and struck the rock, water still came out, but Moses loss his portion in the promise land).

"Abide" is a continual state - because it's in our nature to flicker. I found that it's easier to stay closer when I was put on a mission. May be this is why "Purpose Driven Life" was selling so well. When you have an end results in mind (in this case, bear fruits), then you will orient your whole life in order to make it happen.

So in a way, if a person wanted to stay close to God, they must have a fruitful vision of what their life could be in mind. Every Christian must have a holy ambition to "bear much fruits"; they must imagine how would their fruits look like; they must dream about what could God accomplish with their flimsy lives. And only in doing so, they will begin to cultivate their state of abiding in Christ all the time in order for God to realize that vision in their lives.

Lord Jesus, help my life to be bound up in your life.